Some Garden Quilt Books

Bring the garden indoors with garden quilts and fabric items sewn from floral prints. Here are some recommended books with exciting projects.

WillowBerry Lane, Gorgeous Quilts for Gracious Living

By Sonja Moen and Vicki Lynn Oehlke, this was released by Landauer Publishing. The authors offer gorgeous ways to decorate the home with floral fabrics. In addition to garden quilts, this title also includes a collection of coordinating floral items for home décor. All in all, this has 24 projects. There are ensembles for the bedroom as well as the dining room and bath.

In addition to floral bed quilts the items include pillow shams, table quilts and table runners, place mats, dining chair covers, throw pillows and throws, and shower curtains. For some items there are alternative color options.

These pieced projects are made with WillowBerry floral fabrics and coordinating solids, designed by the authors. There is a design to suit every color scheme with floral prints including red, blue, and burgundy as well as other choices.

For each project, this features a list of fabrics and supplies, a cutting chart, layouts, and color illustrated, step by step directions from start to finish. The introduction covers all of the basic quilting and sewing techniques.

Released by Leisure Arts, this title features 40 appealing projects, most of which feature garden and nature themes. The familiar garden motifs include various kinds of flowers and foliage as well as pumpkins. There’s a beautiful Earth day wall hanging and table topper along with a set of tea towels. For spring there’s a lovely floral door banner.

This has items for five different seasons or occasions, including spring and the fall harvest season as well as July 4th, Halloween, and Christmas. It offers a coordinated collection of eight items for each season/holiday.

Among the projects are all sorts of quilts, including wall quilts, lap quilts, table quilts, and table runners. Other projects include pillows, Christmas ornaments, and framed items. For the garden there are decorated flower pots, luminaries, candles, seasonal decorations, and scarecrows.

Some of these easy strip pieced projects feature appliqué. For each project, this has a list of fabrics and supplies, a cutting chart, full size templates, and easy to follow, color illustrated instructions from beginning
to end. This also covers all of the basic quilting and sewing techniques.

Beautiful Alphabet Applique

By Zena Thorpe, this was released by the American Quilter’s Society. If you’re an ardent admirer of illuminated manuscripts, you’re sure to love this garden quilt book. Now you can turn these motifs into gorgeous garden appliqué.

This delightful guide features a complete appliqué alphabet with the letters beautifully decorated with flowers and foliage. Each of the letters can be used alone as a monogram or made into a pillow.

The author explains how to use the entire set for a beautiful garden quilt. This also features other projects, such as wall hangings, using selected letters. It also shows how to do the decorative borders, which are adorned with garden flowers and tendrils of foliage.

There are full size templates for each letter. This has complete, color illustrated instructions from beginning to end. It covers all of the techniques, including the embroidery, appliqué, and yo-yo flowers. This also explains all of the basic sewing and quilting techniques.

For the purposes of disclosure, I received free review copies of these books from the publishers.